According to media reports, the strike that began on Monday, has shut down universities, ministries, and shops across the Israeli-occupied territories. Schools were opened partially, while some teachers, municipal employees, transit workers and others walked off the job. Israel's main international airport suspended flights as well.
The strike was called by Israel’s largest labor union Histadrut on Sunday when massive protests hit the occupied territories over Netanyahu’s failure to release the captives.
The protests erupted in different cities including Tel Aviv, Haifa and occupied Al-Quds. In Tel Aviv alone, 300,000 people were estimated to attend, with some blocking a major highway. Police used water cannons to disperse the crowd. Arrests were also made in Haifa.
The demonstrations took place after the Israeli military said that it had located and recovered the bodies of six captives in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday.
The protesters urged Netanyahu to urgently accept a deal with the Palestinian Hamas Resistance Movement for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the remaining captives.
The Sunday demonstrations were among the biggest rallies in Israel in the past months since Hamas captured some 250 people, including Israelis and non-Israelis, during its October 7 Al-Aqsa Storm Operation on southern Israeli-occupied territories.
Dozens of captives have already been released, while around 100 remain in Gaza.
Israelis blame Netanyahu for the prolonged captivity of their loved ones, as he insists on his demand for keeping the regime’s control of Philadelphi corridor, a 14-kilometer area along the border between Gaza and Egypt. Netanyahu is accused of blocking a ceasefire-captive deal by setting as a condition Israel’s maintaining control of the Philadelphi corridor for any such deal.
On Sunday, Senior Hamas Official Khalil al-Hayya said that no ceasefire agreement is possible without the Israeli regime's withdrawal from Philadelphi, Netzarim, and Rafah corridors.
Hamas has also said that the six Israeli captives had been killed in Israeli attacks, and that some of them were due to be exchanged if a deal had been reached.
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